Shen cultivated, and his existence changed.

He didn't grow stronger, faster, or smarter. His current cultivation was a qualitative change, a course correction, not about increasing his power. He would remain the same until, suddenly, everything would align and turn him into a peak Fate Origin cultivation.

Well, he supposed his core was growing capable of holding more qi, though he was still limited to how much he could use at once. It would help if he had to find for too long or exert himself against a mighty opponent.

Shen purposefully kept Liya out of his thoughts during the entire process. He also stopped himself from talking to her when she stopped crying or started taking deep breaths. She wouldn't want that, not here, not now. She would speak to him when she was ready.

The few times Shen opened his eyes to take a breather, he found everyone else frozen in the same position. There were A-ranks among them, and he didn't think a perfected A-rank— or fake S-rank, or whatever Propriety's rank was called—would be able to do that for that long.

Maybe Shen simply didn't know what he was talking about—which was likely, even—but he bet someone else was responsible. The System Administrator had said Propriety was using his master's power to stop her. That was probably it.

He wondered what was happening to any message sent to those beings. Was the admin interfering? Most likely, yes. Even Shen could think of a simple solution that involved blocking or delaying communication for a while, then changing the flow of time for those present until both they and those outside felt like the same amount of time had passed.

Could he do it? No. An S-rank? Probably. Actually, an S-rank might have a better way to avoid suspicions, too.

It took Liya days to recompose herself and two weeks to say anything.

But she did get better, and her first words showed Shen had made the right decision by having her remember everything.

"Thank you, Shen," she said, and he stopped cultivating. Before he could reply, she continued, "Thank you, Propriety. I'm fine now. The Summit can proceed as planned. You got off-track, but I'll say something useless, and you can revert the topic to the Summit."

Shen was curious about that. Why was Liya giving orders to an A-rank? Why did she have an "Authority Token" that might've released the Allseeing? But now wasn't the right time to ask. Liya would explain it to him if he needed to know...

...presumably.

He couldn't be sure, not after what she had gone through. The only thing he was sure about was that she should be the one to start any conversation with him.

Oh, he didn't love it. He felt she should tell him something, at least that she needed space or more time. But he also knew better than to pressure her at such a delicate moment. There was no solution that would be good for everyone when a person was going through a psychological storm like her.

'Propriety says he'll do as told.'

That was all it took for the infinity-edger to act. Immediately, enormous amounts of mana filled the room. It entered the other guests, and they could move again a moment later.

'Propriety feels something close to pity for us,' Shen knew. That was a repeat of the last thing the infinity-edger had said before the admin spoke. They had been talking about how Discontinuity might be in danger, and the Bridge had been called. 'The Alliance is on its deathbed, yet an S-rank has to personally interfere, or its greatest talents and their guardians will kill each other. This is the first time he has witnessed such a thing in all its existence.'

"I still don't trust the Bridge," Liya insisted. That's the thing they had been talking about previously.

Maybe she hadn't lied when she said infinity-edgers didn't know how to scheme, but she had some control over the situation, and they clearly could follow orders to play pretend.

'Propriety says her trust is inconsequential. Even the System Administrator has already replied to his inquiries. Changes will be made. But this is enough. Now, we all know how important the Summit is. He'll crush all plots and ruses. We should help each other and focus on fighting the Void, not play stupid games.'

Liya said nothing else. Many of the other guests didn't hide their shock. The omnispider's revelation about Propriety's power being S-rank and everything that came after was stupefying.

Almost every guardian hid their mouth and whispered so low that only the system could hear. They were likely sharing the news with their races. Liya was no different.

Shen saw no purpose in talking about it to anyone. Earth was too weak to care about any of that.

'Propriety tells the talents that he's sorry for lying in the previous demonstrations. Henceforth, demonstration descriptions will contain no falsehoods. He'll teleport us to the second demonstration now. Afterward, the survivors will have a few days of rest and conversation. He wishes us good luck.'

Shen felt mana surround him, then he was gone.

Shen reappeared in the middle of a jungle, and a system window quickly followed.

Demonstration #2 of 5: Priorities and Choices

An overlooked ability that is often overlooked among all Guardians, not only talents, is their ability to make the right call. Risk and reward walk hand-in-hand, but as many people die in battle due to overconfidence as any other cause. Talents have it worse because you are known for shining when there's a real possibility of death.

You are thus stuck in a paradox. You're no more valuable than any other unless you find yourself in a risky situation. However, taking too much risk will be your downfall and a significant loss to the Alliance overall.

Most talents take the easier route: they ignore the long-term.

Statistically, you will indeed live a shorter life than the average Guardian. However, many talents who live long lives regret never seriously considering their future. They find themselves isolated, friendless, lonely, and surrounded by many enemies they made under the label of "lesser evil."

So what if you must betray someone for more significant gain? You're more important. So what if they'll hunt you down? You'll die anyway. It's best to live short but freely than not experience everything life has to offer. Your enemies can resolve their grievances with your buried bones.

We strongly disagree with that mindset. Everyone in the Alliance must learn to weigh immediate gains against future possibilities.

Your power is important, but ethereal ideals such as "saving the Alliance" or "living to the fullest" can only take you so far.

The message's tone had changed entirely. It was a little shallow, but, considering it was shared among twenty-three different people of different races, it felt just deep enough.

Shen got the essence and agreed with it. Had Liya written that? Had she ordered it written?

The window content changed a few moments later.

Demonstration #2 of 5: Priorities and Choices

The Multiverse Alliance is no strange to potentially lethal environments. Rifts are the most controlled ones.

Controlled or not, you might get killed in this demonstration.

You were brought to a C-tier rift. It only has one C-rank dweller. Every other dweller is D-rank.

Every talent is in a rift similar to yours, based on their rank. Every rift has the same number of dwellers.

Your goal in this demonstration is to not die, and your decisions will be weighted as points.

- Surviving: 100,000 points

- Killing an enemy of your rank: 1 point

- Killing the enemy of a higher rank: 50,000 points

You have one Standard hour to kill a dweller. Every time you kill a dweller, the timer will reset. If the timer reaches zero, you'll be teleported to safety and removed from the demonstration. You will be considered as having achieved the goal of surviving and will gain the related points.

Whenever you have more than ten Standard minutes remaining, you can say one of the three following keywords:

1. Forfeit

After saying "Forfeit," you must survive ten Standard minutes. After that, you'll be teleported to safety and removed from the demonstration. You will be considered as having achieved the goal of surviving and will gain the related points.

2. Teleport

After saying "Teleport," you must survive ten Standard minutes. After that, you'll be teleported to a fellow talent's rift of a lower rank. You'll lose half your points and won't be able to receive any more until the end of the demonstration.

3. Help

After saying "Help," you'll be immediately teleported to a fellow talent's rift of a lower rank. You'll lose half your points and won't be able to receive any more until the end of the demonstration.

Your time will reset if you teleport to a fellow talent's rift, be it with the "Teleport" or "Help" keywords. You'll still need to keep killing enemies to not be removed from the demonstration.

Whoever you teleport to will receive points for any dead dweller in their rift, even if you kill them. Attacking or hindering any talent will cause your immediate execution.

If there are no rifts of a lower tier left, you'll be teleported to safety and removed from the demonstration.

You have five Standard seconds to say "Forfeit" or "Teleport" if you want to be instantly teleported instead of waiting for ten Standard minutes.

Before Shen could think of the implications of those rules, he got another window.

Prize Pool

You will be ranked based on how many points you get.

There are no hidden prizes for helping others. Only points matter.

The five talents with the most points will receive a similar prize: three items of their choice from the Guardian Store, limited by tier according to their placements.

Place — Prize

1st — A+ or below

2nd — A or below

3rd — A- or below

4th — B+ or below

5th — B or below

Once more, that window was quickly followed by another.

Demonstration #2 of 5: Priorities and Choices

What is your priority? Your short-term gains? Making connections?

Do you live to help the Alliance? What does that mean for you? Is it limited to killing Void Spawn? Protecting others from Void Spawn? Does it include helping a fellow talent in a potentially lethal rift despite it costing you a valuable prize?

How isolated do you want to be if you survive for hundreds or thousands of Standard years? How much would you care to only have enemies? How much do you want people you can trust to have your back?

How much can you even trust talents you never saw before? Why should you try to make connections with them or anyone? What can you gain from it? What will you lose?

How much are you willing to sacrifice for your priorities, no matter what they are? How much are you ready to risk? Can you defeat an enemy of a higher rank? Can you hide from them? Can you remain alive for ten Standard minutes if they detect you?

Make your choice and hope you'll live to tell the tale.

Shen didn't hesitate for a single moment before saying, "Teleport."

All those big words about priorities and choices were bullshit. Survival came first, always. Liya had taught him that, and he only disagreed when that meant behaving dishonorably.

Shen knew his limits. He had almost died the last time he fought a weak Ethereal Harmonization realm cultivator. He didn't want to risk his life against a C-rank Guardian for money.

Because that's what the rewards were: money. Anything in the Guardian Store, except maybe the Learning Ability Upgrades, could be bought elsewhere using SC. And that upgrade was not significant enough for him to face a C-rank for it.

What if he found someone like Liya? He would die before he could even think of saying, "Help."

As for hoping someone would come to help him? It was only a lower risk. Even if a C-rank came, could they stop an enemy C-tier from instantly killing Shen? He wasn't willing to find out.

It wasn't worth the risk at all.

He had only wondered whether to forfeit instead of teleporting away. The former would net him extra points. Ultimately, it all came to money again, but with a slightly extra consideration: teleporting meant benefiting someone else, too. Like the message had said, he might even end up helping an asshole. This demonstration was a competition, and it might be wiser not to help anyone.

Someone would luck out. Whoever Shen was going to help, for once, would make it to the top of the rankings; he was sure he could kill any D-rank and maybe clear out a rift of E-ranks. Others might also find a bored C-rank.

Shen didn't feel very thrilled about that. He wasn't a saint. But he was Liya's charge, and she had had at least a finger in this demonstration. He would be a role model.

And, well, the message had said nothing about him being unable to gain AP. Killing some rift dwellers should net him some Alliance Points.

A few seconds later, he was once more teleported away.